1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to automatic equipment for operating gates, and also to systems incorporating such equipment and such gates; and more particularly to computer-controlled apparatus enabling both remote diagnosis and automatic remote alerting of service personnel to actual or incipient failure.
2. Related Art
Gate operators have been in use for many years. They are the devices that provide the motive force for opening a security gate to a residence or a complex facility.
A gate operator typically includes an electric motor, gearbox and drive mechanism, and an electronic controller. It opens a gate in response to any of a variety of inputs (typically contact closures), such as that from a receiver in response to a transmitter being activated, or an input from a card or code entry system when a valid card or code is used, or that from a telephone entry system when a resident is granting access to a visitor. Some such systems that have been connected to activate gate operators--but previous to our present invention have never been otherwise integrated with such operators--are the subjects of our above-mentioned patents.
Because they are outdoors and subjected to constant use, from time to time gate operators fail. Moreover, because of built-in safety features their operation may be interrupted, giving the appearance of a failure. For instance an operator may shut itself down and require resetting because of fault conditions such as motor overcurrent (occurring through, for instance, some blockage of the gate or of moving parts in the operator itself, or through exhaustion of lubrication), or seeming failure of the gate to close (occurring through, for instance, chain failure or malfunction of a position detector). Such appearance can also arise through improper use.
Because gate operators may control access to large complexes or gated communities, their actual or apparent failure can be extremely disruptive. This is especially true if such an event is protracted.
Heretofore it has been possible to determine the cause of a gate-operator failure only by going to the site where the operator is installed. Thus, all seeming failures--including those that aren't really failures (e.g., activation of a safety device, or improper use of the gate system or peripheral systems)--necessarily cause a service call.
Even then, and even after ascertaining the problem, if in fact it is a true failure a service technician may not be able to fix it. The technician may not have brought along all the necessary parts for the particular gate, the particular gate-operator model, or the particular installation geometry, because, before arriving, the technician may have had little idea of the failure mode.
Actual or apparent failures can also be intermittent. (This is especially true of gate operators because they have moving parts which can be slightly out of adjustment.) After a customer has called the service technician complaining of a problem, the technician arrives only to find the gates working properly. This intermittent type of failure can make trouble-shooting almost impossible and can lead to many successive service calls--and in turn to a great deal of contention between the customer and the servicing company.
Still another difficulty with prior automatic gate operators is the scheduling of preventive maintenance. Because the number of cycles of opening and closing per day or week varies greatly between different types of installations, a service technician arriving for routine service may find that no service is really needed--or, conversely, a service technician arriving on an urgent service call may find that significant down time could have been avoided by renewal of lubrication or consumable parts a week or two before.
Two other type of devices which are relevant to our present invention, though in markedly different arts, are the modern telephone entry system--such as those described in our above-mentioned patents--and access control systems with card and code capability. Telephone entry systems incorporate the ability to be called and diagnosed remotely via modem; and access control systems provide various automatic functions that conceptually overlap with those of gate operators.
Heretofore, we believe, it has never been suggested that there might be any relationship between the features of such entry or access systems and the problems of automatic gate operators--even though the three types of systems have coexisted side by side (and in many installations even interconnected) for years, and even though enormous benefits could have flowed from such a recognition. A possible reason for the failure of workers in any of these arts to recognize this potential is that gate operators have always been primarily electromechanical devices with rudimentary electronic control.
As can now be seen, the related art remains subject to significant problems, with room for major improvements.